96 Days

As if my life weren't busy enough before, I have added full-time wedding planner to it. Because I'm not exaggerating when I say it's a full-time job.

Oh but good news! We finally figured out the date ... August 16.

Of 2009.

Yes, I'm serious. 96 days, people. I'm trying not to freak out. I have woken up in the middle of the night for three consecutive nights with a thousand things running through my head. I have to keep a notepad on the table beside my bed so I can get some sleep.

I am super excited about where we're getting married! I really wanted to hold it somewhere I'd never attended a wedding before, and living here so long, those places are few and far between. But this is the first and only place we looked at. We loved it.

We got our wedding rings a couple weeks ago. That was fun and
totally spontaneous. One day after church, instead of heading to my place like we normally do, Chris turned the truck the other way and drove to Jared's. Within 30 minutes, we had picked both of our rings. Mine is absolutely gorgeous and it made me even more excited to get married. (As if that's possible.)

My first foray into dress shopping will be this weekend. I've made appointments at four different places over the course of two days. I'm sure I'll have lots to share from that experience, based on my previous experiences doing this with sisters and friends.

Basically at this point we both eat, drink and breathe wedding stuff. 24/7. We actually have to purposely designate times not to talk about the wedding. Chris has been great with all this, especially considering the fact that he was not too crazy about the idea of fitting it all into three months. He hasn't said "I told you so" once, although I'm sure he's been tempted to. I'm hoping that things will slow down soon once we get a few more things figured out.

You know ... stuff like flowers, catering, band, vows, colors, cake, decorations, invitations, musicians, ceremony, wedding dress, attendant gifts.

Oh my gosh what the heck am I doing writing on this blog?

I have a wedding to plan.

He Asked and I Said Yes

I have some exciting news. CHRIS AND I ARE ENGAGED!

I know, right? I didn't see it coming either. Want to hear the story? (Warning: It's kind of long, so if you're interested in the details, read on. For you bottom line types ... he asked and I said yes.)

The Story
Chris and I have always thought it would be fun to take a random vacation day. Not for anything in particular ... just a day off. So not too long ago, we decided on Friday, April 24th and the plan was to take a day trip to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.

Then last weekend, Chris got sick. I'm talking really SICK - cough, head cold, muscle aches, chills, seriously high fever - the works. He kept getting worse, so on Sunday we went to Emergicare, where they took his temperature (103.3 degrees!) and told him he had the Flu and Pneumonia. So he spent all last week at home, most of the time sleeping. By the time Thursday night rolled around, he was feeling somewhat better, but was still really weak. We decided to call the spontaneous vacation day off until he was feeling better, but late Thursday night, he sent me a text that said "Keep the vacation day. You need a day of fun and I intend to give you one."

We decided, however, against the Mt. Princeton plan. Since he had just spent a week with a fever, Chris didn't really like the idea of spending the day sitting in water that would elevate his body temperature again. The weather forecast was very warm, and we still needed something non-strenuous, so we decided to take the dogs and spend the day up at a park in Denver. We packed a lunch, sunscreen, a blanket and a bunch of books.

We got to Denver about 11 am. Chris parked the truck and, instead of unloading the dogs and picnic stuff, said, "Let's go this way" and headed in the opposite direction. Then he says, "Um we're not actually going to the dog park" and we walk up to a day spa. He had booked us four hours of spa time! (Yeah ... I got a good one.) We did a saltwater floatation thing, a facial and a hot stone massage. It. Was. Awesome.

When we're done, we got the dogs and headed down to the lake a few blocks away and then to the real dog park to let them run. (Welcome to our life with three dogs.)

Then we went to dinner at Bang, this funky little restaurant in the Highlands. After dinner, we wandered a few shops down to this wine shop, where they are having a wine tasting, so of course, we tasted. We popped into the gourmet cheese store next door, then poked around in a used book store.

After we wandered around a while, we hopped in the truck and headed over to Bonnie Brae to get ice cream cones. (It was at this point that I finally started taking pictures. I thought I'd get a good photo or two for my photo blog.)


After ice cream we walked around the neighborhood pointing out what we like or don't like about people's houses. Finally we headed back to the truck.

He pulled into Wash Park as the sun is going down and says, "Let's go walk." So we headed down towards the lake. As we got closer to the water, there were huge clouds of mosquitoes. (I'm not sure WHAT they were doing since this is Colorado, the land of no bugs.) But anyway, we quickly left the water and moved up to this open grassy area. I decided it's a good spot for pictures, so I started taking some and he got goofy.



After a few minutes, he said, "So ..." and then stops. I'm not oblivious ... I know what's coming, so I said, "So ... what?" And he said, "We should go."

So I'm like, "YES I will! Wait ... what?" (Okay that response was all in my head.) But suddenly I'm doubting what I had thought had been obviously coming and I feel stupid for even thinking he's going to propose.

As we walked back to the truck, he saw a cement picnic table and suggested we sit on it. Then he told me that the day is very special to him because four years before was the day he had become a Christian. Um ... WOW. We talked about that for a few minutes and then he got up. I got up to follow him to the truck and he said, "Sit back down!" Then he got on his knee and handed me the ring and said, "Will you be my wife?" I said "Yes" and put the ring on.

It fits perfectly.

The Crazy God Part
A while back, when Chris and I were just starting to get serious, I decided that since I had never even looked at diamond rings, I should probably look at least a little to figure out what I like. So one day I looked at a few web sites and saved a couple pictures of rings I thought were pretty.

Not long after that, I asked Chris if he wanted my input whenever the time might come when he chooses a ring and he said no. He wanted to pick it himself. So after that conversation, I decided not to look anymore so as not get my hopes set on something in particular.

Chris had picked out a certain ring, but then a couple months ago, God woke him up in the middle of the night and told him to get this other one (the one above.) He thought the setting resembled an ichthus fish, symbolic of the fact that he was planning to propose on the day he accepted Christ.

Well look at the ring that I had saved on my computer way so long ago ... the one Chris never saw.
God completely blows me away.